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Venom duct origins of prey capture and defensive conotoxins in piscivorous Conus striatus

Venom duct origins of prey capture and defensive conotoxins in piscivorous Conus striatus

Authors :
S. W. A. Himaya
Ai-Hua Jin
Brett Hamilton
Subash K. Rai
Paul Alewood
Richard J. Lewis
Source :
Scientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Nature Portfolio, 2021.

Abstract

Abstract The venom duct origins of predatory and defensive venoms has not been studied for hook-and-line fish hunting cone snails despite the pharmacological importance of their venoms. To better understand the biochemistry and evolution of injected predatory and defensive venoms, we compared distal, central and proximal venom duct sections across three specimens of C. striatus (Pionoconus) using proteomic and transcriptomic approaches. A total of 370 conotoxin precursors were identified from the whole venom duct transcriptome. Milked defensive venom was enriched with a potent cocktail of proximally expressed inhibitory α-, ω- and μ-conotoxins compared to milked predatory venom. In contrast, excitatory κA-conotoxins dominated both the predatory and defensive venoms despite their distal expression, suggesting this class of conotoxin can be selectively expressed from the same duct segment in response to either a predatory or defensive stimuli. Given the high abundance of κA-conotoxins in the Pionoconus clade, we hypothesise that the κA-conotoxins have evolved through adaptive evolution following their repurposing from ancestral inhibitory A superfamily conotoxins to facilitate the dietary shift to fish hunting and species radiation in this clade.

Subjects

Subjects :
Medicine
Science

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20452322
Volume :
11
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Scientific Reports
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.5e50d4af67147f6af7d78edaad25125
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91919-4